Last year around this time, CHS posted about four alternatives being weighed as the City of Seattle prepared to update is 20-year plan. Ed Murray’s office has now prepared the mayor’s recommended Seattle 2035 plan and is ready to move it forward with City Council to guide the development of neighborhoods across the city in the coming decades. Here’s what Mayor Murray has to say about the framework his administration is championing:
Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation and while this growth provides a booming economy, we must continue to focus that development in livable, walkable neighborhoods with the amenities that help people thrive. With this comprehensive plan, we will build a more equitable future for all residents with better access to the affordable homes, jobs, transit, and parks that make Seattle vibrant.
City officials are shaping the plan to accommodate an expected 120,000 additional people living in Seattle by 2035, around an 18% increase from the current population. The planning process included racial and social equity factors, environmental management, and job and economic factors and builds on Seattle’s “urban village” strategy which “encourages most future job and housing growth to specific areas in the city that are best able to absorb and capitalize on that growth.”
The recommended plan is focused on six high level policies and goals, according to the mayor’s announcement:
- Guide more future growth to areas within a 10-minute walk of frequent transit
- Continue the Plan’s vision for mixed-use Urban Villages and Urban Centers
- Monitor future growth in greater detail, including data about racial disparities
- Increase the supply and diversity of affordable housing consistent with the Mayor’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA)
- Update how we measure the performance of the city’s transportation and parks systems
- Integrate the City’s planning for parks, preschool, transit, housing, transportation, City facilities and services
The comprehensive plan originally adopted in 1994 was last updated in 2004. The policy document is now in the hands of the Seattle City Council for review, a public hearing, and approval by the end of the year. You can learn more at 2035.seattle.gov.
The full recommended plan is embedded below.
Start by changing zoning on Capitol Hill. People want to live here and we can’t accommodate everyone with these 5 and 6 floor buildings going up on Capitol Hill arterials near transit hubs.
Where’s the Madison BRT in this plan? Was that plan scrapped?
this is a plan about land use… why would a brt line be relevant?
It’s a good question! This plan is not just about land use. Comprehensive plans are about how we grow, which includes land use, housing goals, capital facilities (like schools, sewers, and water) and transportation needed to accommodate growth over the next 20 years. Seattle’s comprehensive plan relies on other transportation plans, like the Transit Master Plan, the bike plan, and Move Seattle, to actually identify transportation improvements. I assume Madison BRT is still in the mix (wasn’t it in the levy package?), but this document doesn’t specifically identify transportation projects.
Other cities, though, do list transportation projects in their comprehensive plans.
No LR stop at N 130th, no urban village.